College Stadiums Ban Social Media

On Monday, the Southeastern Conference (SEC) released new guidelines for attending any of their sporting events at college stadiums across the U.S. They include a complete ban on using social media while in sports facilities, which means no more Facebook, Twitter, Twitpic or YouTube. The reason behind the ban is so that only authorized media have exclusive broadcast rights — in this case, CBS.

Because we all know what a threat some fan on their BlackBerry snapping a pic of the field from the upper deck and posting it to Twitter can be.

What’s clear is that the SEC wants to protect its contract with CBS. What’s not clear is why they want to completely abolish free publicity to their games by not allowing social media.

Some people just don’t get it. Social media should be viewed as a welcome additive to compliment the broadcast coverage and put more fans in the seats.

Stopping anyone from streaming video from their phone or Twittering while in their seat will be very hard to enforce. It’s best to leave things the way they are, or a fan backlash, along with bad PR, may be quickly around the corner.